Ten European Union countries will welcome some 400 unaccompanied minor migrants, evacuated from the Greek island of Lesvos after the gigantic fire in the Moria refugee camp, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer announced on Friday 11 September .
Read also: In Lesbos, the EU is mobilizing for the homeless migrants of Moria
"
Our contacts with member countries of the European Union have led to 10 member countries participating in the transfer,
" he said in Berlin, specifying that Germany and France would each support 100 to 150 of these children.
These 400 unaccompanied minors have already been transferred to mainland Greece after the fire that devastated the unsanitary and overcrowded camp, and left the more than 12,000 people who lived there in the greatest destitution.
"
We need solidarity
"
"
We are in discussions with other countries
" of the EU which can accommodate these children, specified Mr. Seehofer during a press conference with the European Commissioner for Migration, Margaritis Schinas, who participated by video from Athens.
The Netherlands had proposed Thursday to take care of a hundred migrants, half of them minors.
Among the other countries which will welcome a small number of children are Finland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Croatia, Portugal but also outside the EU, Switzerland, according to the minister's details.
They will be welcomed in Germany "
by the end of September
", said the conservative minister.
“
Moria is a stern reminder to all members (of the European Union) of what we need to change in Europe,
” said Mr. Schinas, who was then due to meet with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis before travel to Lesbos where thousands of asylum seekers spent their third night outside, sometimes without cover, camping on the sidewalks.
“
We need solidarity in the EU's migration policy,
” he added.
Read also: Berlin pushes the European Union to welcome migrants
Germany intends in a second step to take charge of “
families with children
” currently in Lesbos, also announced Horst Seehofer, without wishing for the moment to specify the exact number of people, nor to provide a timetable.
The Moria tragedy has reignited the debate on the reception of asylum seekers in Europe, over which EU countries are tearing themselves apart.
The European Commission is due to present at the end of the month a long-awaited, and several times rejected, proposal for a new Pact on migration and asylum.
The reform has so far stumbled on the issue of the distribution of asylum seekers, which countries such as Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia in particular refuse to be imposed.
In Germany, pressure is mounting on Angela Merkel's government to evacuate migrants stranded on the Aegean island, just five years after the country opened its doors to hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing war and poverty.
Several cities and regional states have demanded to be able to take care of migrants, claiming to have the necessary infrastructure and staff.